Day 3 of our Grand Canyon Ride was the best riding I had so far. Beautiful forest 2-track, with some occasional hill climbs, rocks, sand, and rocky hill climbs. Also the best Grand Canyon Vista, Sublime Point...
At this point we are about 7-8K ft high and the temperatures are perfect. Wide fast dirt road. Couldn't ask for more...

And some random GC pictures

From my GoPro cam.

Click to expand...

day 3 was the best one for me too!

like ersin described it, it was a mix of various terrains. lots of moderate hill climbs, 2 tracks, forest riding, wide open dirt roads, open meadows, sand, roots, canyon pavement, etc. and all have astonising views.

I was bombing along as usual, burnin' it up pretty good and whoa, huge sand pit through a sweeper corner. I got three quarters of the way through, started a tank slapper, and it finally pitched me off. Went flying over the bars and landed on my shoulder in the grass. I heard something crunch a little, not sure if it was my neck, back, or shoulder. It still has a little twinge even today. Nothing major though.

I was sure this was going to swallow a few of them so I laid in wait with my camera. They did not disappoint.

After awhile they started coming through and I kept motioning them to stay over in the right track, it wasn't nearly so bad. Riddler went through with a 15' sand rooster tail behind him.

Ersin was first...

Rich got mostly through and then got stopped and helped Ersin pick up. I would have but was some distance around the corner now motioning to the following riders.

Next down was Joel, helped him pick his up. Joel was a little more spectacular...tank slapper, then up over the shoulder berm, and bam...

Paul got bounced up over the shoulder too.

We had just left Sublime Point, way out to the edge of the Kaibab Plateau, right out into the Grand Canyon in a point. This place is said to have the best views of the canyon in the entire park. It did not disappoint. About 300 degrees of view.

On the way to Indian Hollow campground, Rruugger, Joel and myself found a "shortcut" in the woods. We came upon this fallen tree that we were just able to skirt under, the rest of the trail was super fun. At times it completely disappeared, as there hadn't been any traffic on this trail for what looked like a few years.

Whew! I'm all caught up with homework and am now posting my ride report!

Well let's see...where do I begin?

I couldn't make this trip last year due to a prior obligation but I made damn sure I could do it this year. This ride certainly did not disappoint. We had a mix of terrain - loose rocks, sand, silt, and hard pack. The company was great - Jon, John, Paul, Ersin, Chris, Aram, Frank, Joel, and Tim.

Day 1 was the toughest. It all began within the first hour of our departure.

We fueled up and headed for them thar hills...

The rocks were loose and the climb was steep. This combo made for a loooong 17-miles

During a break I snapped a few pics.

Ersin (FYYFF):

Joel (h8chains):

I continued to chug along, turned a corner and came across this. Ersin skiing through the rock garden:

I didn't snap many photos of the Elbow Canyon Jeep trail. Once I got to the top I heard a bike coming up. Paul has a BIG smile after conquering the trail

Ersin made it up not too long before us and was chillaxing on his strange butterfly balancing chair:

Aram:

Tim:

Joel was so spent he couldn't ride up any further so Tim was kind enough to ride it up for him. Joel said, "...puck this, I'm walking" and walked up to the top:

Onwards to the Bar 10 Ranch!

The roads from here on out were so plush with scenery it was amazing.

In the middle of nowhere Ersin got a rear flat. It couldn't of happened at a more scenic location.

While hanging out and waiting for Ersin to finish his tire a truck of these dudes asked us if everything was OK. Tim replied, "Yes". The guys said, "Are you sure?". Tim said, "Got any beer?" The dude, "Yeah! I have 3 ice cold ones you can have." Awesome! This beer certainly hit the spot. I went to my tank bag, grabbed a cigarillo especial and shared it with these guys. They were so stoked, they went to the truck, grabbed one of those aluminum hiking bottles and offered us a drink. "You guys drink fire water before?" Home made vodka! Another treat in the middle of f-ing nowhere. Niiiiice!

After Ersin's tire was buttoned up, we continued down the trail to the Bar 10 Ranch where Jon, John, and Chris were patiently waiting:

The lady making sandwiches came outside where we were all hanging out and announced she will be serving dinner soon so we better come on in and have our lunch. So we did :dg

The kitchen staff:

After lunch Ersin got the wi-fi password from the staff, logged into whereamiriding.com and searched for Joel. The roads out here aren't marked well so Ersin switched to satellite view and got some help from the fine and helpful Bar 10 Ranch staff:

Hanging out waiting for Paul & Joel:

Behind the ranch looking towards the air strip and the Grand Canyon:

Aram:

It was determined that Joel and Paul have been waiting at the old schoolhouse for the last 30-min. "...maybe they have decided not to come to the Bar 10 and are simply waiting for us?"'

We all fueled up down the road where the fuel tank was located near a horse corral. Afterwards we went back to the ranch to pay and low and behold there was Joel and Paul! Tired and hungry!

After they ate and fueled up, we hit the road to our camp for the night - Toroweap:

It was dusk when we arrived at camp so I didn't snap any photos. The next morning after breakfast we did a little exploring. This place was the most majestic camp ever. A smooth faced rock barren plain as Tim put it It was absolutely beautiful here. Just a short 15-min hike away is the canyon's edge...breathtaking!

Joel letting the bike get some rest. This was a fun hill. I'm glad Chris didn't bring the Versys.

Click to expand...

I like this one the best...

That is to say that I think this one best illustrates how hard that trail is, and what kind of verticle climb you were looking at. All of the other shots of the day looked like a fairly flat dirt road. This one shows why it might have been a bit of a struggle for some of yall. Plus I enjoy the... shall we say Expansive... nature of the photo. It really feels like you could just spread your wings and take flight from the photographers vantage point. I love it!

Great RR yall, I am looking forward to following this one to its completion.

This is early in the morning. We just left Indian Hallow CG and decided to keep Joel in the middle of the group to prevent him getting lost, or I should say prevent his GPS die on him and get him to wrong places...

Just in...
When we got to Lees Ferry it had been 3 full days of riding in dust and heat. We were tired and very very dirty. We needed a bath really bad. So we decided to go and take a dip into the cold Colorado River. It was cold indeed. I couldn't go in, just waist down and washed my hair. But someone didn't care about freezing cold water, or flyfishing strangers or even paparazzi...